Lawsuit filed by dead woman against closed store of chain that no longer exists

Two sisters from Bridgetown, N.S., are marching on with their mother’s human rights complaint two years after her death and one year after the implicated store closed.

Shelley and Donna Viner say their mother, Kathleen Viner, was unfairly accused of stealing from a Zellers store in Greenwood in 2008.

Viner, then in her late 70s, said she was detained by security and searched, even though she had a receipt for a rug she bought. Viner said she was discriminated against for being black and began a complaint with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.

“It affected her mental state, her physical state,” said Donna Viner. “Just because of the humiliation and hurt she felt, it was sad to watch her.”